Biological Chemically Enhanced Primary Treatment (BioCEPT) Compared to Traditional Activated Sludge Secondary Treatment During Wet Weather Flows

The Akron Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) has a secondary treatment capacity of 8.33 x 105 m3 /d (220 mgd) but peak flows can be up to 1.06 x 106 m3 /d (280 mgd). Akron was required by Consent Decree to install a BioCEPT facility to treat the delta 2.27 x 105 m3 /d (60 mgd) of wet weather flow. BioCEPT consists of a biological contact zone in combination with traditional Chemically Enhanced Primary Treatment (CEPT) to achieve equivalent secondary wastewater treatment during the peak-flow (storm) events. Activated sludge from the WRF’s traditional secondary treatment is combined with excess wet weather flow to provide biological treatment. Full-scale testing and sampling of BioCEPT and traditional secondary treatment processes were completed during 20 wet weather events to determine the performance of the BioCEPT process in comparison to the WRF’s traditional secondary treatment. Performance of BioCEPT was found to be comparable to the plant’s secondary treatment system.